The last few days

Yesterday we were treated to a lovely spa at Eagle Canyon which is like a development like Dainfern only that the development is still being built. Many tractors hovering around and not as green but there is a golf course. My friend, Christine, the chinese woman who has two daughters, is a developer there and she never thought she'd own a spa but the clubhouse had a large empty space. It has taken her 6 months to convert it, www.senshispa.co.za, it has many chinese elements and is really quite nice. I went for the thai massage and mom for the traditional chinese. Michelle and Charmain also got massages, we'll have to bring shelley when she is back.

After over 3 years, I have finally found a massuer who can crack my back and neck and it felt so good like the tension that you can't get rid off apart from being twisted in funny contortionist positions. Ahhhhh is all I can say. I have booked Loren for Sunday.

Yesterday pm, nate's cough took a turn for the worse, if he got upset, like riley and lucas not sharing toys, he would start to cry then cough badly. At the end of the meal (great chinese noodles by christine), he threw it all back up. Well at least yesterday he had an appetite.

We cancelled the wonder cave excursion today and heade to the dr. Nate has minor croup (the umbrella name for nose, throat and lung problems in kids), another 2 days and he would be heaving like a seal and not being able to breathe then its the emergency ward. Both riley and ethan has had it in the past 4 weeks, in preparation for it, I bought a baby monitor for his room. The dr detected sounds in his right lung and an xray showed it to be early bronchital pneumonia. He is now on antibiotics and a steroid and the coughing has gotten alot worse and its highly contagious so we have to watch for ike (high chance of getting it) and keep him from other kids, so no horse riding and school for nate.

The cold front has crept up on us again, strangely it rained last night (apparently it never rains in winter), today we are at a low of -1 up to 10 degrees celcius. The west of Joburg had even snow. There will be an elec outage from midnight till 6 tomorrow. Ike is bundled up warmly.

Loren is back from Congo tonight. Hope he is over his congested nose.

photo's

Weekend with Zeda

Some pics of us at the caves. Nate managed to stay awake and then passed out at 230 until about 430. Nate seems to like caves and if he is feeling ok on weds, I think we'll take him to the wonder caves not too far from Sterkfontein. We then had a fish dinner and ike ate a quarter of porpors large fish dish.

Porpor enjoying the wide open scenery of South Africa.

Today nate took zeda thru pootoom river which has really dried out! then we spotted the guinea fowls and his friends. Kelly and Helen both want a baby brother and love patting ike.

Nate has a cough again and may be sick, hope it isn't croup.

We also have the pics back fm the photographer and I will try and upload some.

shabbat #3

I didn't do so well in the picture taking to document this one... There were a total of 16 people, including nate (the only shabbat virgin) and another boy of 4. As usual somehow the shabbat grew, I had to take out a table fm the garage and slant the table in the dining room to fit everyone. We also over cooked the amount of food and still have left overs flowing out of our ears.

Here is a pic of mom and Thembi and Nomsa and the dogs after everyone had left.

some pics of our activities

Here are some shots of Ike coming out with us, we headed to the Lesedi cultural village again to see if nate or ike would be scared, they both seemed to like the costumes but the timing isn't right. Maybe i can try and stretch nate... or in a year he would be taking much shorter naps. I do like the murals they paint, maybe I should start doing some of those aerial but 2 dimensional paintings.

Here he is on his little bike, he is very fast and zippy now! and nate coming out of the tunnel with his latest girlfriend, yang yang from school. They live just down the road from us so we bump into them often on walks.

Nate's Report Card Part 2

Round bracket are my comments...

Intellectual [memory, concentration, creative activities]
Nate's attention span tends to fluctuate, this should improve as he matures. Nate enjoys creative activities but needs encouragement to complete his work. Nate can follow instructions. He has a good imagination and he often indulges in fantasy play with his peers.

Music and movement
Nate is still learning the words to songs and rhymes. He sometimes needs prompting to join in with the actions during music and movement.

Perceptual [shapes, colors, puzzles etc]
Nate knows and names all the primary colors. He recognizes and names the basic geometric shapes. Nate is unable to rote count (maybe the dual language confuses him or he didn't get my child genius genes) and his number concept has not developer yet (they should test with M&M's he sure can count those!). He is building a four piece puzzle.

General Comments
Nate is progressing nicely in the duckling class. He is more confident and is he is adapting well to the routine. He is a happy child who enjoys affection. I look forward to his continued progress - Teacher Avellyn.

Nate's Report Card Part 1

The stuff in brackets are my comments...

Social and emotional development and independence
Nate has settled well into the class routine and school environment. He is a sweet natured little boy (apparently when I am around he turns into a whiny little boy!) and he interacts well with his peers. Nate is quite independent and does not require much assistance when going to the toilet (ah! I see the skid marks at home on his undies) or putting his shoes on (aha no whiny whiny?). He still needs to learn to tidy up though (strange, this he is quite meticulous in his room).

Gross Motor Development
Nate is active and agile in the basic gross motor activities. He is well coordinated and walks steadily on the balancing beam (hmm he came back with a big black bump on his forehead today!). He utilizes all the outdoor playstructures and he loves to ride the little bikes (he is really getting quite fast on those things). His ball skills are progressing nicely (Jake is happy to hear that!)

Fine Motor Development
Nate's fine motor skills need some practice. His pencil grip is incorrect and he battles to manipulate a pair of scissors (maybe I should start him on chopsticks too?). He is able to build with the construction blocks and toys and can now thread large beads on a string (hmm he did small beads in taipei!)

Language and Listening Skills
Nate's speech is developing well. He speaks clearly and his sentence construction is fine for his age. His vocabulary is coming on nicely. He can initiate a conversation with me and chats freely (he can name all the characters in "cars"). Nate does not always listen attentively when a story is being read (ah the selective hearing begins). He often gets distracted.

Father's Day

This mask is Loren's father's day present. I found it in a store at the Lesedi cultural village and its apparently about 25 years old and from Ghana. His expression seems to be one of shock in being on our wall, observing the strangeness of our dogs, kids, drama helpers... mom the non-cook, cooking! Yeah am getting some semblance of chinese food. She made my favourite noodles today and taught nomsa how to make them, when I told her I had taught her before, mom said nomsa had no reaction like she had learnt it before, so I said, when you are back the next time on your second tour of duty, I bet she would have no recollection of this lesson too!

Zeda took nate and ike swimming, well I was in the pool too so I didn't get any pics for the blog. I will need to get some pics before he leaves next weekend.

Here's nate and porpor in a tickle-tickle fight. The weather has been quite nice until its dark then temperatures really drop. We took nate to see the lion king musical yesterday, he lasted until about intermission.

Here is a photo of the Randburg magistrate court. Last week I got a ticket for driving without my international license, I had the singapore license but forgot to put the international one in my bag (its now in my glove compartment). I went to pay the fine last week and guess what... the payment collectors were on strike and so the prosecutor cancelled the ticket.

Some pics of the boys

Want vs. Need

Nate has been saying, "I need this" or "I need that", every sentence starts with "I need...", I couldn't figure it out, I thought kids say, "I want this" or I want I want I want and then I realised that here, in school, the teacher says, "I need you to do this or that", they don't say, "I want you to do this or that" and so he never says, "I want..."

Here is a picture of me and my new horse, Jojo, Victor the gentler horse was given to a beginner student. Jojo is quite nice, its like an automatic car vs. a manual but he is also a faster horse, he doesn't stop and start so much, but 30 mins of riding is quite exhausting, I won't be playing polo anytime soon and I think I know why riders become bow legged.

Today we had the photographer here, at one point the photographer asked us to all lie on our bellies, nate didn't like ike near his feet or toys so he kicked him, ike later saw his opportunity, leaned over landed on nate's shoulder and bit him really hard, there are teeth marks to show! sigh, I guess this is the beginning of their brotherly fights?

Helicopter ride

Here is a photo of nate in a helicopter, dada took him up on the invite of a client. Nate was very brave and was not afraid at all. He had to wake up early and went with dada at 6:15 in the morning to the airport.

When I walked ike around the neighbourhood at 8:15, the was a helicopter hovering over our house. Here is a picture of pistol kissing his girlfriend on our walks. He also meets up with two poms and two huskies that probably think of him like a walking snack.

We have had a busy weekend, Zeda was in town and is now in Zambia. While he was here he took kaikai to the bird park and the lion park and they pat the lion cubs together. On sunday, kaikai took him to have sushi. This weekend we have a professional photographer in to do family photo's, hopefully ike will be awake and they dogs well behaved. I also have tickets to take porpor and nate to see the lion king musical which is playing at the newly built montecasino theatre.

Freak Hail Storm

On Wednesday at 1 am it started to rain! Rain is rare in winter here. It rained for 12 hours until 1 pm the next day. We woke up to a swimming pool overflowing with water, wet everywhere and large heavy dark grey clouds.

Nate went to school in boots and although the weather cleared up several times, it was short. Mom and I checked out the new mall on Cedar road then headed home. After lunch, the sky cleared up and I decided to take ike for a walk. As I headed down the golf course, I thought the golfers are mad to be playing in such weather, for some reason I decided to turn back, maybe it was when the guinea fowls were dashing home. As I reached the fork of the road, heavy drops began to fall again, should I turn left and have about 500 meters to home or should I go right and its 10 meters to the lightning shelter. I decided to take cover under the shelter and down poured big drops then small tiny ice pieces!

I see several golf carts head my way with golfers holding umbrellas at the side of their carts. It rains heavier and heavier and the sky is just dark dark dark. In another 30 mins I have to pick nate up from school so I call home and mom and nomsa head out in the car to get me. When they arrive I had to dash uphill with a small umbrella in one hand and ike holding tight, nomsa got the stroller... after jumping over several big puddles we make it into the car. Nomsa decides not to even come to the front, she chucks the stroller in the back of the prado and then jumps onto the stroller, closing the door behind her.

We head home, drop nomsa and ike off and go pick nate up. Halfway there the sky clears up, its blue again, the clouds have drifted far far away and only large puddles remained. It apparently never rains in winter... but its a good sign, everyone is happy for the water.

Lesedi Cultural Village

On Tuesday, we set out to find Lesedi which is not far from our house, on the way we also found home of the chicken pie, I wish i took a photo as we sat outside overlooking a small lake, it was almost like being in some US rural area. Then at Lesedi we had a welcome crew of tribes people in skins and zulu shields and spears, here is a photo of porpor with one of them. Their tour is 2 hours long and so we could not join in as we would be late picking nate up from school. Their gift shop was really nice though and I managed to find loren something for father's day.

Mom is now busily studying maps of the area and what we can see and do around here apart from only visiting malls, of which a new one on cedar road has opened and according to michelle is rather nice. Here is a sign board of a guinea fowl (for bubbi) on Kromdraai road, where the cradle restaurant, sterkfontein caves is situated and in between the two locations is wonder caves and a private small safari, mom was excited to see two giraffes roaming around.

Ike may be teething or something, his naps are not great again. Nate on the other hand, if I have alot of physical activity, he sleeps till 7 am and then he also takes a good nap. So that means I have to go swimming with him or biking. The dance teacher won't take him in cos he is too young. I am tired after even a non-physical activity like his art lesson.

This week his school project is to learn about other cultures and the teacher assigned china to his class. His teacher said people from china are called chinese and apparently he said, "I am chinese". I suspect if she said Indians, he would have said, "I am Indian" as he is now saying, "I am spiderman", "I am the champ" and sometimes he confuses it and says, "I am the chimp".

sniffles

Nate has passed his cold to dada and now me and porpor. I guess the flu shot didn't prevent it! The weather is really nice again, it warms up to about 24 degrees but then once the sun goes down it gets really chilly.

Nate has been waking up really early again and as I have now banned the bottle in bed he insists on getting up, dressed and downstairs for his milk. His behaviour has really improved the last week once we catch our inconsistencies and implement what we say. He also find a corner for him in public if he doesn't behave, where he can sit for 3 minutes, given a warning and a choice he would choose to behave now. Also tantrums are ignored and he is quite grumpy after his naps so I tell him to call me when he is ready to get up and move to the next step. He also knows he gets to watch tv after finishing his dinner.

Today I took a different route to his school. He loudly protested going, thinking I was going to his old school at Summit College. I am really glad I moved his school, I really think he did not like that school or rather the teachers, the black assistants he talks about alot and says, "I like dorkus and monica". I also realised he started saying "you naughty boy" when he went there. I never call him a naughty boy although we have a naughty chair, I don't think he knows the words yet unless someone has been saying it. In anycase I am tremendously happy with his present school and teacher. He always talks about "teacher avellyn". She told me that she thinks her daughter is in love with him and I told her I think he is in love with her, what a love triangle!

Here are some pics from nate's riding school. The jumping castles before and after riding classes are great for dispensing their boundless energy. Even Ike is starting to bounce. Ike now starts to protest loudly if we do not take him out the door with us. Did I tell everyone he said "Ma"? not mamamama or mama, but more like a mhaaa, like the wah a sheep would bhaaa. Well I'll take it! The first pic is of the two of them in supermarket carts or as nate says, "futomarket".